3 college roommates chase down porch pirate in Connecticut

BRIDGEPORT, Connecticut -- Three college roommates took matters in to their own hands when they chased down a suspected porch pirate.

Call it the nightmare before Halloween. Video captured an alleged thief snatch a package containing costumes from a porch in Bridgeport, Connecticut.

"I swear to God, if that's my Halloween costume," you hear one of the women say in the video.

Even though it's not recommended by law enforcement, the victims instinctively reacted and chased after the suspect in their car.

"In the moment it was like fight or flight and I was like, no package is going to be here if I reorder it," said Avery Barnes, theft victim.

"Then we jump up and we followed her all the way down, outside," said Hannah Taggart, theft victim.

"Yeah, we're like, if we're doing this, we're doing it together," said Leora Stieglitz, theft victim.

"Do you want the police called? Give me the package!" they said to the suspect.

"I felt in the moment like I was invincible. I know now that it could have ended very badly," Barnes said.

With their packages full of Halloween costumes, medications, and some TV cables back in hand, the young women called the police.

"We made a police report and he made sure to tell us, like, that's not safe," Taggart said.

Porch pirates caused up to $8 billion in theft last year alone and seem to be getting more and more brazen.

In June, ABC's Rebecca Jarvis rode along with members of the Metropolitan Police Department of Washington, DC's Fifth District on one of their decoy package operations.

Officers work with community members leaving packages equipped with AirTags in high crime areas with the hopes of reducing thefts like these.

"People knowing that this is happening, in its own way, keeps people from doing this, because they're afraid that that package might be the one that was dropped off by the police department," Jarvis said.

"Correct. And that's really the main goal. It's really looking at behavioral change as opposed to punitive change," said Commander Sylvan Altieri, Metropolitan Police Department.

The program has led to a 17% reduction in theft.